Army reminds US of its military help to Pak before 1971 war

The Army on Tuesday took a dig at the US for its role in aiding and abetting Pakistan for decades prior to the 1971 war with India.

In a post on X, the Kolkata-headquartered Eastern Command of the Army shared a newspaper clip from August 5, 1971. It showed how the US was supplying arms to Pakistan for decades in the build-up for the 1971 war. "This day, that year build-up of war — August 5, 1971," the post was captioned.

The post comes a day after President Donald Trump threatened India over its purchase of Russian oil, saying he would substantially raise tariffs on goods from India.

The newspaper clip mentioned Defence Production Minister VC Shukla telling the Rajya Sabha about how NATO powers and the Soviet Union had been contacted over the arms supply to Pakistan in the backdrop of Islamabad's armed aggression in Bangladesh.

While the Soviet Union and the French government had denied supplying arms to Pakistan, the US continued its support, the report mentioned.

It also said both the US and China sold arms to Pakistan at "throwaway prices". Pakistan used US-made Sabre jets and Patton tanks against India in the 1971 war.

During the 1971 war, New Delhi was officially "non-aligned". It was the Cold War era (1945-1991) and on August 9, 1971, the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation was inked. It allowed the Soviet Union to intervene to stall a possible US strike during the 1971 Indo-Pak war. The US despatched its Seventh Fleet, while the Soviet Union stalled a UN Security Council vote against India by using its veto power.

It was only after the Cold War ended that the India-US strategic relations took baby steps. In 1995, the two agreed on having ‘defence relations’. In 2005, the two signed a "framework of defence relationship".